Healthcare Technology Featured Article

February 02, 2012

Healthcare Organizations Looking to Outside Companies for Revenue Cycle Management


Electronic health records (EHRs), government regulations, forms to fill out, looking into information health exchanges, meeting “meaningful use” requirements, keeping patient files safe., trying to make money—it’s clear that physicians have a lot on their hands these days, and managing their offices and billing cycles may just fall through the cracks. 

That’s why Riverside Medical Group has signed an agreement with Streamline Health Solutions, Inc., to license the company's physician workflow management solution to manage accounts receivable and claims denials.

Streamline Health Solutions, Inc., is a provider of enterprise content management and business analytics solutions for healthcare organizations, and Riverside’s physician offices, outpatient centers, convalescent facilities, retirement communities, hospitals and other services throughout eastern Virginia, will now have “advanced data insight to identify areas of performance improvement across the revenue cycle continuum, allowing the physician practices to maximize revenues and effectively prioritize and manage outstanding accounts receivable levels,” according to a press release. Streamline’s workflow and analytic solutions will also be used to reverse claims denials through proactive follow-ups.

"New clients like Riverside Medical Group expand Streamline Health's presence in the healthcare space by providing workflow and analytic solutions to the ambulatory side of patient care in addition to the acute business," said Robert E. Watson, president and chief executive officer of Streamline Health, in a statement. "Riverside Medical Group recognized the value in our new business analytics solutions and the advanced reporting capabilities they will provide. We're pleased to add them to our list of respected healthcare organization clients."

"We chose solutions from Streamline Health because of the ability to integrate with our practice management system, as well as the ability to adjust the workflows to meet our specific needs," Richelle Fleischer, vice president, Revenue Cycle and Customer Relations management, Riverside Health System added. "We were looking for a proven solution from an established healthcare information technology vendor, and are very happy with our choice of Streamline Health."

“Physician practices are contending with a growing accounts receivable problem,” Daryl Deke, executive vice president and principal of ACF Medical Services said back in 2007. Since then, with the advent of healthcare reform and its requirement that clinicians move from paper-based to electronic files, accounts receivable have added to the challenge healthcare organizations now face.

“Health care is changing, and physicians have to work harder to compensate for stagnant reimbursement, insurance denials and increased legislative and regulatory activity,” said Rob Gregg, CHBME, CFO at Shared Management Services, a practice management and billing company in Oklahoma City, in a story at mdnews.

Upcoming images to the healthcare industry's regulatory environment will further complicate revenue cycle functions over the next few years, according to a report by TripleTree, an investment company.

And that’s why more healthcare organizations like Riverside are looking to outside companies to help them manage their accounts receivable functions.

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Deborah DiSesa Hirsch is an award-winning health and technology writer who has worked for newspapers, magazines and IBM in her 20-year career. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jamie Epstein
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